p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 47. (12/2/1897)

SURE WORD OF PROPHECY. A study of the book of Daniel.

A concise study of this important prophetic portion of the Bible. Fully illustrated. Paper covers. 96 pages. Bible Students' Library No. 131. Price, 10 cents.

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The End Very Near

By Editor

The following tracts show conclusively that such is the case. Now is the time to study and distribute them. Sent post-paid on receipt of price.

The Signs of the Times

Bible Students' Library No. 36. Sixteen pages. Price, 1 cent.

Without Excuse

Bible Students' Library No. 46. Eight pages. Price ½ cent.

Why Not Found out Before

Bible Students' Library No. 52. Eight pages. Price ½ cent.

Great Day of the Lord

Bible Students' Library No. 65. Forty pages. Price 2½ cents.

The Counterfeit and the Genuine

Bible Students' Library No. 74. Sixteen pages. Price 1 cent.

God's Message for To-day

Bible Students' Library No. 81. Eight pages. Price ½ cent.

America's Crisis

Bible Students' Library No. 138. Thirty-two pages. Price 2 cents.

Truth for the Times

Bible Students' Library No. 143. Sixteen pages. Price 1 cent.

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Where Shall We Learn Truth?

By Editor

In a lecture on "Our Own Ghost," given in Metropolitan Hall, San Francisco, November 22, Father P. C. Yorke, in discussing American prejudices against Roman Catholic belief, said:—

"The object of the Catholic Truth Society is to set forth the teachings and history of the Catholic Church from the Catholic standpoint. As we may be reasonably supposed to know best what our teachings mean, it is only right that those who wish to examine our teachings should learn them from us."

Our object in quoting the above is to point out the wrong principle involved in the last statement. For it is a fact that those in error do not best know what their teachings mean. The old-school physicians, who bled till they sapped all the vitality of a fever patient, did not "know best" what their teachings and practise meant. There is no one so deceived in his own case as the self-satisfied sinner. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"—as much as to say, No one. The text continues, "I the Lord search the heart." Jer. 17:9, 10. To whom then shall we go? Shall we go to the Buddhist to learn what the teachings of Buddhism mean? Shall we go to the Spiritualist to learn what the teachings of Spiritualism mean? Shall we go to the anarchist to learn what the result of his teachings will be? Shall we take lessons of the light-fingered cult or the road agents to learn the justification of their acts? Or shall we go to the law of the eternal God, and the Word of his truth, and the life of his Son? Roman Catholic theory may be learned by the study of Roman Catholic theology. But the truth must be found, if found at all as a saving truth, in God and his Word. If the Roman Catholic have the truth, that Word and his life will reveal it. He will bear witness in teaching and life to the truth of that Word. This we will know if we learn it in the Word. If he do not have the truth, why need we study a false theory? The artist who would paint a perfect picture does not fill his heart and soul with imperfect models, but with the perfect. The truth, the whole truth, is found in God's Word. Accept nothing which is contrary to that.

The Lord's Day

"The Lord's Day."—"What day is it? Many call Sunday 'the Lord's Day,' and others tell us that this is not so." This is a question which is commonly asked. Now as "the Lord's day" means the day which the Lord claims as his, and as it is in its origin strictly a Bible term, where should we go but to the Bible to learn what day is the Lord's day? Here is the reply thrice told. In Isa. 58:13 the Lord calls the Sabbath "my holy day." In Mark 2:28 we read the words of Jesus, "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." And in Ex. 20:10 is this declaration, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." This is "the seventh day" of the week, for the Sabbath comes just before "the first day of the week." Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2. What day is the Lord's day? It is the seventh-day Sabbath. Could a Bible Christian come to any other conclusion?

There are two great truths that forever ought to decide all Christians in respect to the Sabbath question and the law of God: (1) God is unchangeable, and therefore his moral law, or his law of moral conduct, is the same in all ages; and (2) the teaching and example of our blessed Lord relative to that law. Decided in the light of these truths, what day is the Sabbath?

THIS IS FOR YOU.

By Editor

We will send the Signs of the Times until January 1, 1899, from the time orders are mailed to us, to all new subscribers who send us a year's subscription between Nov. 15, 1897, and Jan. 1, 1898. The sooner the orders are sent the more papers will be given, and the better it will be for the subscriber. This offer also applies to those who formerly took the Signs, but have not been taking it lately.

Papers Sent Without Payment

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We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance.

When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the "Signs" are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read.

CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.

By Editor

Editorial.

Abundance of Peace (notes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 2

Is the Roman Catholic Church Apostolic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

"Works of the Law"—Blessedness in Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Poetry.

The Sounding of the Message, CLYDE SCOTT CHASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

All Things Work Together for Good, MINNIE EMBREE . . . . . . . . . . 10

General Articles.

In Gethsemane, MRS. E. G. WHITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Angels of God, F. M. W. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

"The Most High Ruleth," No. 6, W. N. G. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Jottings from Russia, No. 2, H. P. H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Strange Alliances, M. E. K. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Bible Readings.—Spiritual Declension—A Sign of Christ's Coming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Question Corner.—No. 668, When Was the Bible Compiled?—No. 669, The Week Between—No. 670, Spirit and Wind—No. 671, "A Perpetual Sleep," Jer. 51: 39, 57—No. 672, Resurrection of the Wicked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Outlook.—What Does It Mean?—What Is Becoming Common—The Condition of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 9

The Fireside.—"Count Up Yer Marcies, 'Zekel"—The Sabbath Dinner Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 10

Missions.—Training the Little Ones for Service, M. E. OLSEN—From Chicago to Pasadena, W. C. WHITE—Our Work and Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 11

International Sabbath-School Lesson.—The Gospel Rejected by the Jews (Sabbath, Lesson XII, December 18, 1897) . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

International Sunday-School Lesson.—John's Message About Sin and Salvation (Sunday, Lesson XII, December 19, 1897) . . . . 12, 13

News and Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 15

Religious Liberty Library

By Editor

Religious Liberty Library.—Three numbers of this publication came to our table, notice of which was given some time ago. They are as follows: No. 47, "Heavenly Citizenship," by the late A. J. Gordon, D.D., 12 pages, 1½ cents; No. 48, "The Power of His Coming," by the same author, 12 pages, 1½ cents; No. 49, "Christian Citizenship," by A. F. Ballenger, 8 pages, price 1 cent. These tracts contain precious truth, and should receive a wide circulation. They effectually meet wrong ideas concerning the reformation of men by law, and show how only society can be reformed, by the power of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. They may be obtained from this office, or from any of our branch offices, or State tract societies.

The Covenants and the Sabbath

By Editor

We omit again this week an article on “the Covenants and the Sabbath,” by W. L. Iles. It will appear in our next issue.

Righteousness Versus Expediency

The principle of righteousness and not the policy of expediency is the rule of Christian conduct. Time-serving is of Satan.

GOLD, PURE GOLD, FREE!

THE gold excitement of the present day is unparalleled in the history of the world; for it is not to one place that men are flocking, as they did to California or Australia, but to many places. From California, from Nevada, from Alaska, from Vancouver, from Australia, from Africa, from Siberia, and elsewhere, come news of greater gold deposits than were ever before realized. It would seem that just as the "financiers" of the world thought to corner the money of the world by reducing it to one metal, a kind Providence for the sake of a suffering humanity is uncovering the gold deposits of earth, and increasing the circulating medium. And men grow reckless and drunken and mad in quest of the yellow metal. Hood's words should be intensified for these days:—

How to Discern Error.

The only true way to discern error is to know the truth. "My sheep hear my voice," says Jesus, "and I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27. "A stranger will they not follow; . . . for they know not the voice of strangers." Verse 5. The sheep do not spend their time in endeavoring to learn the voice of every stranger or any stranger. It is enough for them that they know the one voice; all others are discerned as strangers because they know the one. The only sure way to discern truth is, not to know a theory or a system or a church, but to know God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. If the princes of this world had known God "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 1 Cor. 2:8. And Jesus declares that those who persecute his followers do so "because they have not known the Father, nor me." John 16:1-3. Knowing God, knowing his voice, which uttered his holy and immutable law, knowing and having (for we know it not unless we have it) the life of Jesus Christ, we will in God's wisdom and by his power be preserved from damning and delusive error. "Thy Word," says the psalmist, "have I had in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

California Chinese Calendar, 1898

By Editor

"California Chinese Calendar, 1898."—An original and unique calendar, a real work of art, has come to our table, published by A. M. Robertson, San Francisco, and illustrated by a well-known artist of San Francisco, Solly Walters. The calendar consists of fourteen cards, 9x11 inches, tied with red cord, on each of which are some fine pen drawings of actual scenes and characters drawn from Chinese life in the great city of the West. For instance, on the first card we have a Chinese nurse-girl with children; on the second, different types of Chinese; and following among others, a Chinese scribe at work, a Chinese barber dressing the hair, a boy running to school, a Chinese gentleman, a vegetable pedler, a cook, a highbinder, an artisan, the dragon, etc., etc. The name of each month, and the year 1898, are given in Chinese as well as English. It contains in all thirty drawings from life. A neat holiday gift. Price, 50 cents, red boards, wide margins, silk tied, $1.25. Postage, 10 cents. Address the publisher.

The Gold of Faith and Love

Yet how few of the seekers return rich; and none return satisfied! Many sell health to obtain the precious metal; many more barter character; many families are forever sundered; and oftentimes a grave in a distant land of buried hopes and a wasted body is the end.

But God offers gold, the gold of faith and love, the gold that has all the promise needed of the life that now is, and the eternal promise of the world to come. The Lord of heaven and earth says, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire." And that purchase is "without money and without price." If you will give yourself to him, if you will accept him for yourself, you have all heaven's riches in Jesus Christ. He can not reveal the riches he will give you here. Time is too short. But "in the ages to come" he will "show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." All may share in these riches, and to each are they infinite.

The Goodness of His Providence

The Goodness of His Providence.—It should be a cause of deep gratitude to the Christian that in the providence of God the two great Bible societies were formed. The British and Foreign Bible Society during the 93 years of its existence has distributed 151,000,000 Bibles of all sizes. The American Bible Society, founded twelve years later, 1816, has distributed in 81 years, 63,000,000 copies. Both together have sent out to a world in need of spiritual food 214,000,000 copies of the Word. Other Bible societies (perhaps 50 in all), have issued 51,000,000 Bibles. The Bible is now printed in 681 languages. Fifty-two versions have been added during the last five years. May God abundantly bless this seed sowing.

The Price of Gold

days:—

"Gold! gold! gold! gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold; Molten, graven, hammered and rolled; Heavy to get and light to hold; Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold, Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled; Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old To the very verge of the church-yard mold; Price of many a crime untold. Gold! gold! gold! gold! Good or bad a thousand-fold!"

Yet how few of the seekers return right, and per-